Nick Joslin

Nick Joslin

Math Teacher at Westside High School in Omaha, NE

Bachelor’s degree in Math with a minor in statistics in 2005 MA in Education from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2007

I knew I wanted to pursue a future in education, and thought it would be fun to teach science, physics in particular. After a year of being a physics major, I realized I didn’t like it all that much, and realized it would be more fun to teach what I like, than what I perceived to be more fun to learn.

Current Position:

Currently I am a high school math teacher, at Westside High School in Omaha, NE. I am teaching AP Statistics, Honors Pre-calculus and a regular probability and statistics course. This has been more or less the same teaching load I have had for the last 10 years, since I started teaching after graduating. Also, I helped coach the varsity swimming teams here at the high school for 10 years, and this is my first year not doing so! A few years back, I had the opportunity to help analyze the data from a Doctoral student’s dissertation. I thought that this would lead to a nice side job of analyzing data, but without a PhD myself, I didn’t acquire too many jobs. Due to the relationships I made, I did wind up picking up teaching a few on-line statistics courses at a local nursing college here in Omaha, which I have taught 9-12 credit hours a year the past 3 years.

How I use math in my job:

Obviously, as an educator, I do not use mathematics directly, just teaching the concepts for others to use. It seems that at least one student from my AP class every year has decided to study some sort of statistics in college (actuarial sciences and medical research have been the two most common career goals among these students).

Advice for students getting ready to hit the job market or start graduate school:

Do what you want, what you enjoy. You might not know what sounds fun until after you’ve been in the workforce a few years and you learn about other opportunities.